A man from Hyderabad refused to accept his order via Swiggy because it was delivered by a Muslim delivery executive.
According to the Hindustan Times, Ajay Kumar had placed an order of Chicken 65 from Grand Bawarchi restaurant in the Falaknuma area in Hyderabad via Swiggy, the mobile food delivery app. While placing the order, however, he had given specific instructions for the food to be delivered by a “Hindu delivery person.”
Just to remind you, Hindutva fascists were trending boycott business with Muslims two days ago.
— Riaz Ahmed (@karmariaz) October 23, 2019
When the order was delivered, he was enraged to find that the delivery executive was a Muslim. He refused to collect the order, shouted at the delivery person and got into a heated argument with Swiggy customer care executives.
“He asked my name and when I told him, he got very angry,” said Omar, the delivery executive who the order was assigned to. “He shouted at me for not honouring his preferences. He said he was rejecting the delivery because I was a Muslim,” Omar is quoted as saying.
Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, Omar stated that Swiggy is not concerned with the religion of a person and that he was probably assigned the delivery because he lives nearby. He also went on to say that there are hardly any Hindu delivery boys living in the Faluknama area and that he was assigned the order automatically by the system.
When the customer care executive informed Kumar that he would be charged Rs 95 as a cancellation fee, he said he did not mind the penalty as long as he would not have to accept the delivery from a Muslim, the Hindustan Times reported.
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Later that day, Amzadullah Khan, the president of the political party Majlis Bachao Tehreek, pointed out that the owner of the restaurant was a Muslim himself and the chef of the restaurant also belonged to the same community. He also said that he had advised Swiggy to file a police complaint in this regard.
This is not the first time that such an incident has come to light.
Earlier this year in July, Zomato had dealt with a similar problem when a customer refused to accept his delivery from a Muslim delivery executive in the month of Shravan.
As the debate heated up on social media, Zomato had tweeted “Food has no religion”.
Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion. https://t.co/H8P5FlAw6y
— Zomato India (@ZomatoIN) July 31, 2019
Zomato also posted a follow-up statement with a caption saying “Food for thought”.
Food for thought pic.twitter.com/zZ3k6YfuzI
— Zomato India (@ZomatoIN) July 31, 2019
Deepinder Goyal, the founder of Zomato, had said “We are proud of the idea of India- and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values.”
We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values. ?? https://t.co/cgSIW2ow9B
— Deepinder Goyal (@deepigoyal) July 31, 2019
In Swiggy’s case, Omar, the 32-year-old delivery executive, a postgraduate student, told Hindustan Times: “I believe that we are all humans. But I came across this peculiar experience”.
Featured image credit: PTI